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3 March 2011

Jam & Creams - Asda: Chosen By You [by @NLi10]

I like biscuits, I really do. I really like the Jammie Dodger style ones, but they are even better when you add a little slice of vanilla cream. Fox's do a brill version of this biscuit and when I picked this packet up I got some of those too - they were on special and thus the same price as these.

Asda have tweaked the design, the raspberry jam also has blueberry in it, and the jam hole (that's the technical term) is larger. And the new Asda range suggests that the reason for all these little tweaks is You - they presented some reasonable choices and some people in a room somewhere chose this version of the biscuit. And frankly it's a bit rubbish.

A good biscuit is crumbly, when you bite it there is crumbling and sometimes you get some on you. McVitties know this and have designed machines to replicate the motions of a human bite to test biscuits scientifically with. Asda used humans, tempted by the lure of free food. I suspect these focus group people (who I shall refer to as You) thought they might be getting cakes, or pies or maybe something to drink. Maybe You did get all kinds of foods but at some point You were presented with biscuit choice and You went for the ones that snap and have very little flavour. Maybe You were full. To say that the biscuit portion of these tastes like the Asda budget range is wrong, Asda smart price Custard Creams are fantastic. They aren't high quality, but with tea they do the job. The "Golden Crunchy Biscuits" are so bland that even Kwik Save would have thought twice before stocking them.

The jam isn't very nice either. Jammie Dodgers have nailed the jam thing and spoilt us. The jam stretches when you pull the biscuit apart, the jam tastes sweet yet fruity. In Fox's the jam is firm but still tasty. Here the jam is just red sugar, the You in the focus group went for a jam that looked nice but really isn't special.

The vanilla cream is OK and could potentially save this if the overall was merely weak, but here it just serves to highlight that the rest of the ensemble lacks taste.

The lesson to be learned from this is that food experts tend to know what they are doing. We don't need to choose the products that go on the shelves - we are BAD at this. Adding more people to the decision just leaves us with a bland biscuit that really doesn’t do anything. The chosen by us part should be where we take things home and then return to buy more - this is the way it has worked for a good while now. I'm choosing to leave these behind on the shelf and return to the Smart Price Jaffa Cakes - unless Asda have tampered with those as well...